The commutative properties of addition and multiplication relate to the order in which things are added or multiplied: I can switch the order of 3 + 5 to 5 + 3 and still get the same answer, or 3 x 5 is the same as 5 x 3. This seems intuitive, but is important when we get into more formal proofs. Note that this property does not hold for division nor subtraction. The associative property has to do with re-grouping: I could do (1 + 2) and then +3 and get the same answer as if I did 2 + 3 first, and then + 1. The same is true for multiplication, but again, doesn't work for division nor subtraction.